Flint 2 - Discussion Thread

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hope that helps..
 
superleeds27 said:
I've just called it a day and it's going back to Amazon.

In reality i'd love to dig into OpenWRT and figure out how to use, best setups etc (Pesa's builds!), but at the same time I just need stability and reliability from the get go and it's not giving me that.

The coverage/signal is incredible, to have that and not need an extender/Access Point elsewhere was great.
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Honestly it's more effort to send it back than to flash stock openwrt and set it up, both are super easy. Your talking like it's some big mysterious complicated thing, it's really not, no need to use any third openwrt fork (Pesa) either. Just get the sysupgrade image and flash it from the stock firmware settings page. You've clearly made your mind up though so good luck to you.
 
John24 said:
Are you still on stock firmware? It's based of an ancient OpenWRT and isn't fully open source. Who knows what they are doing under there or if they have even bothered back porting any security fixes. Slap native OpenWRT on it and report any issues on the OpenWRT forum, that's the best way to get stuff resolved and help the project improve. I'm on 23.05.5 and don't have any Wifi issues. Going to switch to the newly released v24 when it's been out a while.
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Is flashing to OpenWRT as simple as flashing the correct sysupgrade.bin from the OpenWRT site? That seems to be what the readme file is saying, but I thought it best to check?

I've had a Flint 2 for 3 months now (running stock 4.7 firmware) and I have been very impressed with it
 
Spudgun said:
Is flashing to OpenWRT as simple as flashing the correct sysupgrade.bin from the OpenWRT site? That seems to be what the readme file is saying, but I thought it best to check?

I've had a Flint 2 for 3 months now (running stock 4.7 firmware) and I have been very impressed with it
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Basicly yes, everything you need to know is on this dedicated Flint 2 wiki page https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl-mt6000

If your not seeing any issues with the stock firmware and are happy with the closed source nature of it I'd be tempted to stick with it. You can always roll back to is easily and quickly though just have a copy of the stock firmware and your settings to hand.
 
John24 said:
Basicly yes, everything you need to know is on this dedicated Flint 2 wiki page https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl-mt6000

If your not seeing any issues with the stock firmware and are happy with the closed source nature of it I'd be tempted to stick with it. You can always roll back to is easily and quickly though just have a copy of the stock firmware and your settings to hand.
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Thanks for that, I've not had a single issue with my Flint 2 using the stock (4.7) firmware, so I will leave it as it is for now and see how long it will be for the latest features to get added to the official firmware.
 
Looking at the Flint 2 manual, I can't see options for selecting which port does what or selecting the MTU. Are these in Advanced Options that need LuCi to access?

Also, one of things I like about Asus routers is that static DHCP assignments are outside the DHCP range which seems sensible to me but it looks like GL-iNet (and TP-Link) disagree and insist that they're inside the DHCP range.
 
I've been using 2x MT-6000 since around April last year.

From June I've exclusively used the Pesa builds, which I've been very happy with, as the GL.Inet firmware always seemed to miss a trick somewhere, although the GUI is lovely.

I'm still currently using the 29/12/2024 4.4.6 Pesa build and it is blindingly quick WiFi with flash and forget stability. The builds subsequent to that are more "experimental" and imo are not as rock solid as 4.4.6.

I have a wide variety of devices connecting to the WiFi of these devices (including using it for VR and working from home myself, then with a family of 4 with a mix of all manner of devices). I have no complaints.

Also, I've only setup Openwrt once per device since moving to Pesa, and just tick a box to move between versions (obviously, I backup to file if I want to try Vanilla OpenWRT or GL.inet official). It's no hardship.

Edit. As one user remarked in the Pesa thread on the OpenWRT forum "The WiFi alone is like night & day compared to stock 23.05.5. I've done 1 week on/off with each and the Pesa 4.4.6 is amazing. It's what stock should be but won't because of politics."

Hyperbole aside, I'm inclined to agree.
 
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Mercurial said:
I've been using 2x MT-6000 since around April last year.

From June I've exclusively used the Pesa builds, which I've been very happy with, as the GL.Inet firmware always seemed to miss a trick somewhere, although the GUI is lovely.

I'm still currently using the 29/12/2024 4.4.6 Pesa build and it is blindingly quick WiFi with flash and forget stability. The builds subsequent to that are more "experimental" and imo are not as rock solid as 4.4.6.

I have a wide variety of devices connecting to the WiFi of these devices (including using it for VR and working from home myself, then with a family of 4 with a mix of all manner of devices). I have no complaints.

Also, I've only setup Openwrt once per device since moving to Pesa, and just tick a box to move between versions (obviously, I backup to file if I want to try Vanilla OpenWRT or GL.inet official). It's no hardship.

Edit. As one user remarked in the Pesa thread on the OpenWRT forum "The WiFi alone is like night & day compared to stock 23.05.5. I've done 1 week on/off with each and the Pesa 4.4.6 is amazing. It's what stock should be but won't because of politics."

Hyperbole aside, I'm inclined to agree.
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You have included some interesting information there, so I've spent an hour this morning transferring to the firmware variant you mention. I've then been all around the house doing wifi tests on 2 android devices and there was no difference whatsoever between speeds to the 'official' firmware in my tests on either 2.4 or 5ghz with download speeds to the router maxing out at 600 (half of the 1200 connection speed) at 5ghz on my S22 and 150 ish on the 2.4ghz side. Range and transfer rates are identical across my entire home, so perhaps my device is a limiting factor and I would only notice a difference if it was capable of connecting to the router at a higher speed?
 
Certainly sounds like it is a possibility (and most likely). Whatever firmware you run won't alter hardware limitations of the client or defeat the laws of physics :).

One thing to bear in mind is the Pesa builds contain a lot of patches and upgrades that will never make it into 24.10 (or later versions, hence the mention of politics I quoted above) which aid stability, range and compatibility, which is my main concern. Performance being a happy and welcome coincidence.

I originally moved onto Pesa because of issues with Apple (which it solved; issues somewhat like the OP posted), but as a family we have Android/Windows/Linux/games consoles as well as IoT devices, which it does the business for.

The reason for me staying on 4.4.6 of the Pesa build is a number of major changes have been made and the kinks are still being worked out, wheras 4.4.6 is the culmination of months of tinkering by the dev and others. This will be done in time, and I'll move on then.

Edit: Do you have your 5ghz band set at 80 or 160? As that will have a bearing.
 
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Mercurial said:
Certainly sounds like it is a possibility (and most likely). Whatever firmware you run won't alter hardware limitations of the client or defeat the laws of physics :).

One thing to bear in mind is the Pesa builds contain a lot of patches and upgrades that will never make it into 24.10 (or later versions, hence the mention of politics I quoted above) which aid stability, range and compatibility, which is my main concern. Performance being a happy and welcome coincidence.

I originally moved onto Pesa because of issues with Apple (which it solved; issues somewhat like the OP posted), but as a family we have Android/Windows/Linux/games consoles as well as IoT devices, which it does the business for.

The reason for me staying on 4.4.6 of the Pesa build is a number of major changes have been made and the kinks are still being worked out, wheras 4.4.6 is the culmination of months of tinkering by the dev and others. This will be done in time, and I'll move on then.

Edit: Do you have your 5ghz band set at 80 or 160? As that will have a bearing.
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I've got it set at 160. I've just backed up my PESA settings and gone back to 'stock' 4.7 and re-run all of the tests again - can't see a single difference on any device anywhere in the house and every test is within 1-2%, so margin of error.
 
Spudgun said:
I've got it set at 160. I've just backed up my PESA settings and gone back to 'stock' 4.7 and re-run all of the tests again - can't see a single difference on any device anywhere in the house and every test is within 1-2%, so margin of error.
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On stock 4.7, leave your house and go out of WiFi range and then return and see what happens.

Some of the devices we have would reconnect automatically but with really poor throughput.
 
superleeds27 said:
On stock 4.7, leave your house and go out of WiFi range and then return and see what happens.

Some of the devices we have would reconnect automatically but with really poor throughput.
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Just tested this - walked to the end of the road and back - only thing I noticed was that it connected to 2.4ghz first (I have the 2.4 and 5ghz set up with different names) as my phone saw that network first as I was walking back - but speeds on that network are just the same now as they were before I left
 
Spudgun said:
I've got it set at 160. I've just backed up my PESA settings and gone back to 'stock' 4.7 and re-run all of the tests again - can't see a single difference on any device anywhere in the house and every test is within 1-2%, so margin of error.
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Seems your getting the full potential from your clients. Great stuff.

As an aside, that answers a question I had, the Pesa build is all open source and if you're noticing no difference that's a good thing as the GL firmware is using closed source drivers.

More options is always good :)
 
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Spudgun said:
Just tested this - walked to the end of the road and back - only thing I noticed was that it connected to 2.4ghz first (I have the 2.4 and 5ghz set up with different names) as my phone saw that network first as I was walking back - but speeds on that network are just the same now as they were before I left
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Yeah it's the 5ghz that's the issue
 
I've enjoyed playing around with OpenWRT today, but I can't get Adblock to install on 4.4.6 of the Pesa build - as it just throws an error every time when you go to install it

ERROR: unable to select packages:
libubus20241020-2024.10.20~252a9b0c-r1:
conflicts: libubus20250102-2025.01.02~afa57cce-r1[libubus=2024.10.20~252a9b0c-r1]
satisfies: world[libubus20241020]
cgi-io-2022.08.10~901b0f04-r21[libubus20241020]
dnsmasq-full-2.90-r3[libubus20241020]
libiwinfo20230701-2024.10.20~b94f066e-r1[libubus20241020]
libudebug-2023.12.06~6d3f51f9[libubus20241020]
logd-2024.04.26~85f10530-r1[libubus20241020]
netifd-2024.12.17~ea01ed41-r1[libubus20241020]
odhcpd-ipv6only-2024.05.08~a2988231-r1[libubus20241020]
procd-2024.12.22~42d39376-r1[libubus20241020]
procd-ujail-2024.12.22~42d39376-r1[libubus20241020]
rpcd-2024.12.02~cc9a471c-r1[libubus20241020]
rpcd-mod-file-2024.12.02~cc9a471c-r1[libubus20241020]
rpcd-mod-iwinfo-2024.12.02~cc9a471c-r1[libubus20241020]
rpcd-mod-luci-20240305-r1[libubus20241020]
rpcd-mod-rrdns-20170710[libubus20241020]
rpcd-mod-ucode-2024.12.02~cc9a471c-r1[libubus20241020]
ubox-2024.04.26~85f10530-r1[libubus20241020]
ubus-2024.10.20~252a9b0c-r1[libubus20241020]
ucode-mod-ubus-2024.12.06~209f041f-r1[libubus20241020]
uhttpd-mod-ubus-2023.06.25~34a8a74d-r4[libubus20241020]
wpad-openssl-2024.10.24~b80b3791-r2[libubus20241020]
libubus20250102-2025.01.02~afa57cce-r1:
conflicts: libubus20241020-2024.10.20~252a9b0c-r1[libubus=2025.01.02~afa57cce-r1]
satisfies: rpcd-mod-rpcsys-2024.12.02~cc9a471c-r1[libubus20250102]
The apk install command failed with code 45

So I am definitely out and am going back to stock
 
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Spudgun said:
I've enjoyed playing around with OpenWRT today, but I can't get Adblock to install on 4.4.6 of the Pesa build - as it just throws an error every time when you go to install it
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I've just tried to add the same package on one of my own Flints running 4.4.6. Same error as you've encountered.

I've read in the Pesa thread issues installing Adblock (or Ad something) before. So may be a known issue with a workaround.

I use Pi-hole so haven't encountered it personally.
 
Mercurial said:
I've just tried to add the same package on one of my own Flints running 4.4.6. Same error as you've encountered.

I've read in the Pesa thread issues installing Adblock (or Ad something) before. So may be a known issue with a workaround.

I use Pi-hole so haven't encountered it personally.
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Thanks for confirming that, good to know it isn't just me. I also had a quick go with 24.10 openwrt, but that seems to have a bug that disables the 5ghz WiFi if you select 160, dropping to 80 and it comes back on.

Overall, I've really enjoyed learning new things about openwrt, but I couldn't recommend it to the average user as things aren't straightforward and there are bugs and annoyances that aren't in the stock firmware (5ghz and adblock).

I wish that the stock firmware had an option that I can find to backup settings though as that would have made my switching and testing easier!

To anyone reading this, the flint 2 is the best bang for buck router I've ever had and to get an equivalent Asus model would cost twice the price, so I would heartily recommend it.
 
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